Dutch has 3 genders, which are hidden from the learner in that the definite article for two genders is "de", and the indefinte - een for all genders, however, they are important as one would refer to ...

I am an upcoming 10th grader and I was wondering whether it would be easier for me to switch from French to German. I've been taking French for 9 years, but it's so complicated and it's lowering my ...

In the book "Fluent Forever" (related blog post here), Wyner suggests using sentences to learn conjugations of verbs. For example, to learn the conjugation of "to be", for each form of the conjugation ...

Persian is written in the Perso-Arabic alphabet and, like Arabic and Hebrew, is written without vowels. This makes it hard for a learner to decipher the exact pronunciation of any Persian word without ...

Suppose, for example, that you are a native English speaker who would like to learn Icelandic. There are no Icelanders where you live and the only ones you come across on Italki, Language Exchange and ...

As a teacher of English I have observed that any child acquires the first language naturally. But learning a second language like English seems to be very difficult for the low proficiency learners. ...

I already know Russian and Ukrainian, I study English.
I'd like to find the next language to learn.
In fact, I'd like to know all the Romance languages, but I should start somewhere.
To begin with, I'...

I have mainly seen three types of poetry writing formats in Urdu. I suppose, Urdu is similar to Persian and Arabic.
Examples of formats:
All verses centered. Single verse per line.
Two columns. Two ...

Since "Thai Language" in Area 51 disappeared, I assume that SE does not intend/plan to be a home for questions related to Thai language (I hope I am wrong).
I found several forums related to Thailand ...

We have links to graded readers for many languages, like Japanese, Russian etc, because it is commonly considered an excellent way to improve language skills.
Does community has any suggestions for ...

I'm looking for a way to practice minimal pairs with anki in a relatively effective way. One of the problems I'm having is the minimal pair cards are not random enough. Also, the cards aren't shown ...

In certain old fragments of the Greek Septuigent the name of YHWH alone is written in paleo-Hebrew letters. I’m a novice at Greek, but isn’t it necessary for all proper nouns and names to be written ...

I like Pimsleur because it teaches you to speak in the context of full sentences and dialogs rather than isolated grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Are there any similar resources for learning more ...

Are there free dictionaries available online for download? For the beginning I am looking for data which provide multiple possible translations and examples, e.g.:
Input word: "Nevertheless"
Output: ("...

There are a lot of ways of assessing verbal proficiency in a language. Unsurprisingly, most of the research and teaching material are for language teachers and researchers.
However, I was wondering ...

I'm trying to find the best app (mobile or desktop) with Spanish oral testing capabilities that allow for custom content. I've found that Rosetta Stone's speech recognition is pretty good but there's ...

I've been studying Japanese since about January using the Genki second edition workbook and textbook. I try to get in an hour session each day but I have been a little on and off with it; I think its ...

I have heard that virtually all Scandinavians are fluent in English. However, I would prefer to learn Norwegian, Swedish or Danish before visiting in order to blend in better. I also understand that ...

The Arabic-speaking population is spread across many countries and a couple continents, from Morocco all the way to Oman. There are many spoken Arabic dialects, which are nearly as different from each ...

My friend's native languages are Cantonese and Mandarin. She rates herself at B1. Peer-reviewed research substantiates that etymology can assist in learning vocabulary. See Google Scholar. English SE ...

Good Day!
I have an interesting conundrum - I can speak Chinese just fine (in fact I just took an HSK placement exam at the local Confucius Centre and was ranked at 4 for listening and speaking). I ...

In general fluency, there was a related question: How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language? which suggest speaking to yourself a lot. But how about your general speaking fluency? I have a ...

I have a friend who is Russian and has used German for day-to-day matters for the last two years. He is very well able to have detailed conversations in German. However, his use of articles is often ...

While practice speaking a foreign language, I often find myself make a mistake during the speech and correct it immediately. The mistakes usually come from grammar, which I rarely do in writing. For ...

I'm helping a middle-aged, college-educated woman from mainland China improve her English. This is a hard-working, well-educated, highly-self-motivated student. She has lived in the USA for many years....